There's not a lot to say about Hot Shots Golf 3 that Mike didn't already cover, and I agree with almost everything he said. As stated, the game is very open and accessible to the average person (golf nut or not), and its an absolute breeze to play. You should have no fear of buying this one, since it's a total winner. I did have a few things to add, though.

I remember a number of years ago, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was still in its infancy, the violent and controversial tournament made its way to my hometown. The night of the show, a local, highly experienced and well respected martial arts instructor was asked for his opinion of the tournament. He replied that it is not real martial arts not because the fighters lack technique, but because the martial arts are not really about fighting.

My first impressions of State Of Emergency were favorable. At the time, I was still being amazed with everything Grand Theft Auto III (GTA3) had to offer and the idea of a game similar (or so I thought) to Rockstars crime simulator in which the main theme would revolve around riots rather than car thefts seemed promising and original. Unfortunately, one problem in particular brought all my positive expectations to an abrupt end: having actually played the game.

The simplicity of some of these games is probably what makes them so memorable. With the Mega Man series, Capcom offered players some of the best platformers of their time, all the while avoiding complicated aspects.

When it was announced that Mad Maestro! was going to see release outside of Japan, there was a fair amount of head-scratching in industry circles. While its true that Mad Maestro! is a music game, and music games are experiencing a steady rise in population, what really strikes a chord of wonder is that Mad Maestro! centers around classical music.

Despite my relatively low scoring for Mad Maestro!, I actually liked it. Perhaps it was the offbeat nature of the premise or maybe Im just a sucker for cutesy Japanese games, but I definitely liked it. While writing this review, I was originally going to give it at least a point or two more, but when I sat down and took a good, hard look at the game, I couldnt really find justification for scoring it any higher than I did.

Given Rockstar's recent list of titles (Grand Theft Auto III, Max Payne and Smuggler's Run 2) and its latest PlayStation 2 venture, State Of Emergency, the company could be accused of poisoning the minds of young generations with videogames focusing on criminal and deviant behavior. While it may not be subject to legal "bad tendency," State Of Emergency outlines another kind of bad tendency among game developers: the tendency to stick over-the-top violence into videogames, for lack of more creative concepts.

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